The End of Coffee

As the world burns through its climate targets, scientists are predicting that coffee as we know it will end by 2050 or sooner.

We’re currently in a shortage.

Inflation took center stage during the U.S. election, and yet both candidates somehow dodged the climate connection. As The Financial Times covered earlier this year, hot weather and drought have beaten countries like Brazil and Vietnam, which together grow more than half the world’s beans.

According to Euro News, Brazil has been dealing with “one of its worst droughts in decades,” with farmers anticipating a 20 percent decline in production this year alone. A September story by the Associated Press confirmed that severe weather has driven coffee prices up nearly 50 percent, and drought has already started to upend next year’s crop. According to NASDAQ, Vietnam has also seen a 20 percent drop in production. The biggest coffee-growing regions are getting anywhere from half to a third of their average rainfall. (For some reason, coffee industry heads are still predicting a surplus. Go figure.)

European countries have started “building up their stocks” as a result. As the Times goes on to report, “Hedge funds and other speculators have piled into bets on Arabica prices rising,” making things worse.

Of course, they would do that.

Maybe it sounds trivial to think about coffee at the end of the world, but there’s a reason. So often, climate scientists and protestors get caught up in big abstract ideas about what the collapse of our planet will look and feel like. Most people can’t wrap their heads around something like that. You have to hit them in the kitchen. It also feels important on a personal level to sit for a minute or two and brace ourselves for a world without coffee. And if you’re not a coffee lover, imagine something else you assumed would always be there.

Because it’s coming…